Unilever is a leading manufacturing company that operated in home, food, and personal

sector of the economy. It had been found in 1930 by U.K Based Lever Brothers and
Dutch Margarine. Dove is one of the Brand of Unilever that is designated as Masterbrand
which has been established in 1957 in the post World-War II era in United States. At its
initial stage Dove has claimed that, Dove is not technically soup at all. It’s a formula that
has come from military conducted research in order to find out the non-irritating skins
cleaner for the use in wounds. Through its advertisement Dove claimed that is a soap that
“does not dry the skin”

Q#1: what is a brand?

Brand:
A brand can be defined as a product, service or an identity of any business. It can be
represented by name, sign, symbol, color combination, logo or slogan.

Why does Unilever want fewer of them?

The global decentralization of Unilever brought strength through diversity, but it also
created the problems of control. Company’s brand portfolio was grown in a relatively
laissez-faire manner as a result Unilever lacked a global identity. So it embarked on a
five year strategic initiative and called it as “Path to Growth”. Main purpose of it was a
plan to winnow its more than 1,600 brands down to 400. It selected few brands as
“Master Brands” which was entrusted with responsibility for creating its global vision
and to indict inspiring cooperation from all geographic markets. These Master Brands
also mandated to serve as umbrella identities over a range of product forms.

Q#2: What was Dove’s Market positioning…….

In 1957 the first product of Dove, the “Beauty Bar” was launched. Technically it wasn’t soap; formula
came from the military research. The Dove stayed with the message constantly that it is a beauty bar
and it would not dry your skin as soap does. Ogilvy and Mather advertising agency created a
campaign that “Dove soap doesn’t dry your skin because it’s one-quarter cleansing cream.” The
picture of cream pouring into the bar was the iconic image Dove used in ads. Later on minor changes
were made; “cleansing cream” was replaced by “moisturizing cream”.

In 2007 Dove campaigned for “Real Beauty”. But the success of the campaign was considered to be
unqualified because it used the unruly, unmapped world of internet media “YouTube” by putting “Real
Beauty” story on it, where consumers were free to comment.

Q#3: How did unilever……

Historically, Unilever has managed its brands and products just like its competitors like
protector and gamble does. Each brand has been considered as a spate business unit
which is competing by company’s other business unit and the products of other firms. In
a product category Unilever has multiple brands and each brand is led by the Brand
Manager. Associates of the brand execute the policies of Brand Manager and he had the
responsibilities of profitability, day to day marketing decisions and design of strategy.
 In 2000 Dove has take Path to Growth initiative by which Unilever had split its
responsibility for a brand between two groups, one charged with development of the
brand and the other charged with building the brand in specific markets. Brand
Development was centralized and global in scope and Brand Building was decentralized
according to the major geographic regions in which Unilever operated.

Brand Development took responsibility for developing the idea behind a brand, for
innovation, and for evolving the idea into the future. It was accountable for medium- to
long-term market share, for brand health, for measures of innovativeness, and for creating
value in the category. It had responsibility for television advertising strategy, and for
deciding which non-traditional media the brand should explore. It developed the brand
plan. It was usually located in the region of the world in which the brand was strongest.

Managers in the brand-building chain of command were charged with bringing the brand
to life in their marketplace. They were accountable for growth, profit, cash flow, and
short-term market share. Working within the mission inherited from brand development.
They managed public relations and informal communications, and made decisions on
what level of spending to put behind the media advertising campaigns that they received
from brand development. Brand builders reported to a general manager for a collection of
brands, who in turn reported to a country or region manager.

Q#4: Spend a little time on research…….

Today some people are much satisfied with the Dove because of the loyalty attached with
the product. It contributed much to satisfy women having beauty complex, it is changing
the stereotypical images of the beauty. That the beauty is not just glamour and fame of
young, white, blonde and thin women, infact it is what every ordinary women see in it. It
is changing the way society views the beauty which is much exaggerated. As it
campaigns for the “Real Beauty” so it aims to make every ordinary woman to feel herself
beautiful.
One of the comments about Dove:
The truth that none of these companies can seem to realize about their target audience is this: we don’t
actually hate ourselves as much as they have wanted us to. Our insecurities are more exposed when we are
bombarded by unattainable beauty images, but the truth is that most adult women (and many younger ones
too) can look in the mirror and see something they like. *That’s* what Dove has hit on, and why it’s been
successful, because it celebrates what we love about ourselves, instead of condemning what we hate.

Q# 5: Endnote……

Public is use to watching super models (young, white, blonde and thin) in ads where as
Dove is taking ordinary women (without focusing fitness and Colour) in ads, So some
consumers tagged it as of being a brand for “fat girls”. It is also undermining the
aspiration of consumers because why does a consumer buy a brand that doesn’t promise
to take them to the new level of attractiveness. Exposure in social media is a big risk of
Dove, because besides positive comments it also invites negative claim and comments
freely which can have adverse effect on brand.